The Moon Jae-in Government is pursuing labor-friendly policies with an emphasis on jobs. In other words, the key agenda of the Moon administration is welfare-to-work policies. Moon’s first directive after the inauguration was establishing a job-committee. The committee is making an effort to solve the job issues. What kind of policies do they have and what are the limits?

 First, the president’s government established guidelines for making non-regular workers permanent. The majority of non-regular workers work unofficially with neither health insurance nor wage security. Moreover, the wage gap has been increasing for years. By converting non-regular workers to regular workers, these problems can be solved.

 The first problem is how to finance the policy enforcement. Plans for financing are less accurate and less detailed. Also, it is unknown how much private sectors will be affected by the government intervention.

 Second, the government is planning a cut in working hours. Shorter working hours causes an increase in productivity, improved employee health, and more jobs. Once this law goes into effect, workers will work less than 52 hours per week. The main problem of this policy is that there are a few unclear measures to ease industries’ burden.

 Lastly, the minimum wage recently increased by 16.4 percent. President Moon is potentially planning to raise the minimum wage up to 10,000 won by 2020.

 Increasing the minimum wage seems like a definite way to help low-paid workers. It is true, but at the same time it makes small businesses less likely to employ workers.

 The government has been following policies aimed at improving the quality and quantity of jobs at the same time. However, there is not only trial and error, but a huge financial burden to enforce the policies. What is certain in that those policies have an apparent effect on reducing the wage gap and improving labor rights.

L.L.F. reporter Yu-Jin Kim